


i just need to know (that you won't forget about me)

by parkersmcu



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF May Parker (Spider-Man), Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Memory Loss, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Protective Tony Stark, Recovery, Temporary Amnesia, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:27:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parkersmcu/pseuds/parkersmcu
Summary: Prompt: Peter gets hit by a bus and gets short-term amnesia (I know it’s dramatic, it’s inspired by a B99 episode I’m watching)
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Happy Hogan & Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 24
Kudos: 234
Collections: Spiderman Fanfiction - Waiting4Update





	1. hope you're safe, 'cause i lay you leaves

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to clover-roseee on tumblr for sending me this prompt! more chapters to be added! also not beta read, so excuse any mistakes! :) title is from the song "don't forget about me" by Cloves

Tony got the call in the middle of an SI meeting on Wednesday at 3:37 in the afternoon. He doesn’t think he will ever forget that date and time.

_There’s been an accident with the kid,_ Happy had said.

In that moment, Tony’s world slowed to a stop. The next few hours were a blur. He called Helen Cho and Bruce, knowing that there was no way that he could take Peter to a regular hospital with his enhanced abilities. Happy had already called his aunt and was making sure that she got to the compound safely.

_He was just hit by a bus,_ Happy had said.

Tony was ready to file all the lawsuits and get whoever was responsible behind bars. Then he found out what had happened. A child around seven or eight years old had gotten away from her parents. She ran into the street without looking, and Peter was there. Tony guessed that Peter had sensed it with his weird feeling that he gets when he knows that something bad is about to happen. Peter saved a child, but somehow, he wasn’t fast enough to save himself.

That was on Wednesday. Now it’s Friday, and it’s a waiting game. Peter’s super healing luckily took care of the broken ribs and multiple broken bones that covered his body. In all honesty, Tony couldn’t even remember all that was broken. It was his brain that the doctors were worried about. They had to go in and do surgery to relieve swelling, but Peter suffered from a brain bleed in the process.

Cho and Bruce had explained to Tony that they didn’t know what to expect. They were hopeful that Peter would wake up, but they were unsure of the lasting damage on his brain. To put it lightly, Tony was a wreck. Obviously, he wanted Peter to wake up in general. But he was praying even harder that there would be no deficits. Because if Peter Parker couldn’t be Spider-Man anymore… he didn’t want to even think about what that would do to his kid.

He was pulled out of his thoughts to someone groaning. _Peter._ Rushing to his bedside, he took his hand. “You with me Pete?”

Peter groaned in response. “What happened?” _He can speak. Thank God._

Tony sighed in relief. “You were in an accident, bud. You saved someone from getting hit by a bus, but you got hurt in the process. They had to do surgery on your brain, and you have multiple broken bones. It’s been two days.”

Tony could tell Peter was still trying to get adjusted to the light in the room, blinking slowly. “Where’s May?” he mumbled, barely loud enough for Tony to even hear.

“Happy took her to get something to eat. She should be back soon. We’ve been worried about you, Pete. I get that you had to save her, but kid, you gotta look out for yourself too. We can’t have anything happen to you.” Tony leaned back in his chair, looking at Peter. He knew his words would fall on deaf ears. He knew the kid would continue to put himself in harm’s way if it meant saving someone else.

Peter continued to look up at the ceiling for a moment before looking back at Tony, blinking his eyes rapidly. “What happened?” He asked again.

_Oh no. Oh please God, no. Please don’t let this be what I think it is, please don’t let this be a permanent thing._

Trying to remain calm to not freak out Peter, Tony repeated what he just said while texting Bruce to head to the med bay ASAP. He tried to fill him in as much as he could in a text without sounding crazy. A minute passed before Bruce came practically flying into the room.

“Hey, Peter. Glad to see you’re awake. Mind if I examine you really quick?” Bruce looked nervously over at Tony and smiled, trying to calm his nerves.

“Uh, yeah, sure Doctor Banner. What happened to me?”

Bruce walked over to Peter, stopping to whisper in Tony’s ear on the way. “How many times has he asked this and how far apart is it?”

Under his breath, hoping that Peter’s spider hearing wouldn’t pick up his voice, he answered, “That’s the third time. It’s about every two minutes, give or take.” Bruce nodded, heading over to Peter.

“You got banged up pretty badly, Peter. But you saved that girl, which is good. We had to do surgery, and you suffered from some broken bones. Your super healing has taken care of the bones and bruising pretty well, though.” Tony could tell that Bruce was trying to remain calm for the boy and for Tony, hoping not to worry him anymore than he already was.

A couple of moments later, the question came again. “What happened?”

Bruce looked over at Tony nervously, and began explaining to Peter what happened again. Tony tried to remain calm, he really did. But he couldn’t bear the thought of hearing Peter ask what had happened again, knowing that this could be a permanent thing.

“Hey, kid. I’m going to go see if I can find your aunt, okay?” He paused, looking around the room, when his eyes landed on the thing that he was looking for. Walking over to the other side of the room, he grabbed a pad of sticky notes, writing quickly what had happened to Peter.

_You were in an accident. Had to have surgery. You’re okay, the little girl is okay._

He walked out of the room, making sure that he was out of earshot before turning to Bruce. “You want tell me what the hell is going on?”

Bruce sighed, looking at Tony. “I need you to calm down, okay?” Tony nodded, taking a deep breath. “I think it short term amnesia. We know that there’s still some swelling in his brain from the scans that we did a couple of hours ago. I think once the swelling goes down, he should go back to normal.”

“And if he doesn’t? What if this is permanent?” _Please, don’t let it be permanent._

“Then we will assess it if we get to that point. Tony, you’ve got to understand how this is going to make Peter feel. It’s going to freak him out, and if he sees you freaking out, it’s going to be ten times worse. Just give it time, okay? He’s alive. He’s awake. He’s still our Peter.”

_He’s still our Peter._

Would he still be if he stayed like this, though? Tony didn’t want to think about it. He just wanted things to go back to normal.


	2. without you there's holes in my soles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not beta read, please excuse any mistakes! happy reading <3

May Parker knew something like this was bound to happen.

She wondered if it was bad that she was waiting for a day like this. Waiting for the phone call that there was something far worse than a black eye or a minor stab wound. She knew it was coming. She felt it in her bones, that life had been far too great lately, and something was coming to turn her world upside down. That's the Parker Luck for you. 

May knew the risks of Peter being a masked vigilante. At first, she didn’t like it one bit. She remembers the day that she found out, how she gave Tony Stark an earful and scared him half to death. But she remembers what Tony said to her.

_He was going to keep doing it anyway. I gave him the suit to protect him. I promise, I’m going to look out for him. He’ll be okay, May._

She went along with it. She trusted Tony, and she trusted Peter’s judgement. So, you can imagine how she felt when he got hurt while out of the suit. It was Peter Parker that was lying injured in that hospital room, not Spider-man. It was Peter Parker that saved that little girl, hurting himself in the process.

These past few days, she didn’t know what to feel. She knew she was angry. Angry that he _hadn’t_ been in the suit when this happened, although she didn’t know what good that it would have done in the long run.

She was fearful. What if he never woke up? What would she do with herself? Peter is her whole world. How would she learn to live without him?

Most of all, as silly as it seems, she was proud. Yes, it sucked that this happened. But he saved that little girl. _Peter_ saved that little girl. Not Spider-man. She knew that Peter wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if he didn’t do something. That’s just the kind of person that Peter is.

May had gotten a text a few minutes ago that he was awake, but that there was something wrong. Bruce called her and filled her in while her and Happy made their way back to the med bay as quick as possible.

Right now, Peter wasn’t able to process new memories. He was asking what happened every two minutes. According to Bruce, he was hopeful that when the swelling in his brain goes down, he would go back to normal. As if anything that happens in her life is normal.

She came to a stop in front of Peter’s room to see Tony kneeling with his head in his hands.

“Tony.”

He looked up, his eyes looking bloodshot. “H-hey May. I’m assuming Bruce filled you in? Rhodey is in there with him right now so he’s not alone.” May stayed silent, trying to process what to say next when Happy cleared his throat.

“I’m gonna go in and say hi to the kid, okay? Just come in when you’re ready.” He put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile before heading inside.

Taking a deep breath, May looked back at Tony, who was still crouched on the ground.

“Get up.”

Tony looked up, startled. He took a deep breath while coming to his feet.

“I need you to listen, just for a moment, okay?” Tony nodded.

“You need to pull it together. I get that you’re worried and upset, trust me, we all are. But I want you to think about what he’s going through right now. How scared he must be every time one of us has to tell him what happened.” She paused, her voice starting to shake.

“This sucks. _This really fucking sucks_ , and everything is out of our control right now. The only thing we _can_ do is go in that room and love on our boy. That’s still our Peter in that bed, no matter that you may think, if this gets better or doesn’t. _That’s our kid._ So, before we go in that room, I’m going to give you a few minutes to pull it together. We have to hold it together for him, okay?” She finished, her glossy eyes meeting Tony’s.

Tony nodded. “I’m sorry I’m a mess. If anyone is allowed to be upset, it’s you. You’re his family.”

“Family isn’t blood, Tony. You’re just as much family to Peter as Richard and Mary were to him. And you know that,” May said matter-of-factly.

Tony nodded, taking another deep breath.

May grabbed his hand, squeezing it in reassurance. “Okay. Now that that’s out of the way. Let’s go see our boy.”

She headed inside with Tony close behind, eager to see what awaited her on the other side and ready to face it head on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is short, but I felt like I hit a good stopping place. thank you so much for all the kind comments on the first chapter, I seriously teared up a bit. don't forget to follow me on Tumblr, crimefightingironspider, and on twitter, parkers_mcu. you can send prompts to either of those! hope everyone is staying safe during this time <3


	3. is there more than we can see?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not beta read so plz excuse any mistakes <3

_“There’s a bleed that was too small to show up in the scans before. We need to go in and operate again.”_

Bruce’s words still echoed in Tony’s mind an hour after he gave him and May an update. It had been a day since Peter woke up, and his memory still had not improved. The swelling had gone down, which was reassuring, but with that came an unnoticed brain bleed.

The past day had been interesting to say the least. Having to fill in Peter every three minutes or so on what was going on was _exhausting._ The worst part? Seeing the fear in the kid’s eyes when he realized he didn’t know where he was or what was happening. Luckily, Peter had also been sleeping more than usual due to the pain meds, so they weren’t having to answer too many questions for him.

So here they were, in the waiting room once again, waiting for Peter to get out of surgery. Praying that he would be back to normal when he woke up.

“What if he can never be Spider-man again?”

Tony turned his head at the sound of May’s voice. She was rubbing her temples and staring off into space. He could tell that she was about to hit her breaking point. Throughout this whole ordeal, she had held it together better than Tony ever could have.

Tony sighed. “Then we’ll go from there. Like you said, May. He’s still our Peter.” He paused, taking May’s hand in his own. “I just… want to thank you. For letting me be a part of Peter’s life. You raised an amazing kid, and I hope that you know that.”

May sighed. “And I want to thank you, Tony. After Ben died… Peter was so broken. And then he started being Spider-man, and you took him under your wing, and it was like the light inside him began to spark again. I don’t think you realize all the good that you’ve done in his life. You’re a great mentor.” She paused, looking at Tony with a teasing smile. “You’re a great friend to me, too.”

Tony returned the playful smile, nodding. “We make a pretty good team, don’t we?”

May nodded, squeezing Tony’s hand. “Yeah,” she laughed, looking at Tony with sincerity.

“We do.”

***

Later that night, Tony sat by Peter’s bed. The surgery had gone well, and once again, it was a waiting game. He was just about to doze off when a voice startled him.

“Mr. Stark?”

Tony almost jumped out of his seat and reached for the kid’s hand. “Hey, Pete. How you feeling?”

Peter groaned in response. “Like I got hit by a bus.”

Tony chuckled. “Well, you aren’t wrong. A little girl ran out into the road, and you saved her. But you got hit in the process.”

Peter leaned back, closing his eyes. “Well, that explains it.” He looked around the room and then back at Tony. “Where’s May?”

“She’s asleep. It’s been a rough couple of days, kiddo. You had to have two surgeries on your brain.”

Tony tried to keep his voice steady, trying not to worry Peter. It had been a minute now since he woke up, and he was praying to whatever God is out there that his memory was back to normal.

_Just two more minutes. Stay calm and keep him talking for two more minutes._

“Aw, man. I promised Ned I’d help him build a new Lego set this week! And we were supposed to update my suit this week! This sucks.” He sighed, leaning his head back on the bed.

The corners of Tony’s mouth twitched upward, easing some of his anxiety. “We’ll have plenty of time to update the suit when you get better. And I’ll buy you and Ted all the Legos that your heart desires.”

Peter looked at Tony quizzically. “Why do I feel like you aren’t telling me the whole truth? You’re holding back. Did I almost die or something?”

Tony was taken back by Peter’s bluntness, but he wasn’t surprised that he picked up on Tony’s anxiety. The kid can read Tony like a book.

He leaned back in his chair, trying to decide how to broach the subject. “Well, uh, there was some complications with your first surgery. When you woke up, you weren’t able to retain new information for more than three minutes at a time. And now with you awake… I’m waiting to see if it will happen again.” Tony stopped talking, and he swore that he could feel the tension in the air. Peter stayed silent for a while, trying to process the information that was just thrown at him.

Peter looked down and nervously fiddled with his fingers. “Oh. That’s—uh—that’s pretty scary.”

Tony smiled. “Yeah, it was. But I’ve got good news. It’s been three minutes, and you haven’t asked me what happened yet.”

Peter looked up suddenly. “The surgery worked?”

Tony nodded, and before he could stop himself, he pulled the kid into a hug. “Yeah, it looks like it did.”

Peter hesitated for a moment, before pulling Tony into a tighter hug. “Oh—this is nice.”

Tony chuckled. “You deserve a hug, kid. You saved a life. You also scared the shit out of your aunt and I, but I can’t be too mad at you. I swear, you’ve got a worse hero complex than Cap.”

Peter smiled cheekily at Tony. “So… when can I get back into the suit?”

“Well, your aunt would prefer never, but we both know that that’s not going to happen. Whenever Bruce gives you the all clear, I guess. But please, kid, no more running in front of buses, okay? For mine and your aunt’s sake.”

Peter nodded and laughed. “Yeah, can’t promise you that one.”

Tony shrugged. “I know. It was worth a shot, though.”

A comfortable silence fell upon the two. “I’m really sorry that I scared you. And I’m really glad that my brain isn’t turned into a vegetable.”

Tony couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the teenager. “Me too, kid. But even if you were, you would always be our Peter.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whew, this is long overdue. first off, I'm sorry that an update took so long. I've been busy trying to adjust to online school, which has been kicking my ass. worst of all, my dog that I have had for 15 years fell ill about a week ago. I have had to care for her the past week, but sadly, she passed away this morning. writing this chapter was the only thing that brought me joy today, so if you've read this far, thank you. I hope everyone is staying safe during this time! don't forget to send me prompts at my Tumblr, crimefightingironspider, and my twitter, parkers_mcu. happy reading <3

**Author's Note:**

> hope everyone is staying safe during this scary time! i hope to continue writing, but life is crazy right now, as you know. i am now a full time college student online (yikes) and had to move home, away from all my friends. like so many of you, ao3 has been my comfort during this time of uncertainty. if you ever want to chat or send prompts, my tumblr is crimefightingironspider, and my twitter is parkers_mcu. stay safe, practice social distancing, and wash your hands! and happy reading!


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